For-profit colleges cost more, study says

The average cost of attending a four-year for-profit college surpassed expenses at both state and private nonprofit universities, a government report found.

The average cost of attending a four-year for-profit college surpassed expenses at both state and private nonprofit universities, a government report found.

Full-time students paid an average of $30,900 annually at the for-profit schools in the 2007-08 academic year, almost double the $15,600 average paid at public universities, according to U.S. Education Department data released last week. The average cost of attending a private, nonprofit college was $26,600, the study said.

Congress has been investigating costs and students' debt burdens at for-profit colleges, which get as much as 90 percent of their revenue from federal student grants and loans. Default rates among former students at for-profit colleges jumped to 15.2 percent, the Education Department said on May 20 in a separate report.

"The career-college industry readily admits that they cost students more than some alternatives," said Pauline Abernathy, who oversees policy and advocacy for the Institute for College Access and Success. "The question, particularly for the lower-income students these colleges target, is whether it's worth the higher cost."

The study's cost estimates, which used constant 2009-10 dollars, included living expenses such as housing and food, for students at all colleges. It looked only at students who were still considered dependent on their parents, to get a picture of the costs paid by "traditional" undergraduates, said Tom Snyder, an Education Department statistician.

The report looked at a small sample of the students at for-profit colleges, where only about one-quarter are dependents, said Harris Miller, president of the Washington-based Association of Private Sector Colleges & Universities, an industry group.

Four-year for-profit colleges also spent less than nonprofits on instruction, averaging expenditures of $2,659 per student in 2008-09, according to the study. Private four-year nonprofit colleges spent almost six times as much - $15,289 per student - in that same period, and public institutions spent an average of $9,418.